SUCH PROFUNDITY
—Holly Day, Minneapolis, MN
and then there was this one time
when my sister and I became
fascinated with Buddhism
made ourselves robes out of bedsheets and
tinted our bodies blue with our mother's eyeshadow stick.
my sister sat cross-legged on the floor,
closed her eyes and chanted
"Om, om, om"
over and over again and then
"I can see you, great Buddha. I'm coming,
Buddha" and wouldn't stop
she scared
the shit out of me, and I shook her
and shook her until
her eyes opened and she told me
the most wonderful stories about elephants
and palaces and all the places she went and how
it had seemed like she was gone forever
and told me I should try it for myself and I did
I really did
but I never went anywhere.
__________________
Thanks, Holly, for the poems! Holly Day, who has a poem in the new Rattlesnake Review, lives in Minneapolis with her two children and husband. Her most recent books are Music Composition for Dummies and Music Theory for Dummies.
Also today, Tom Goff sends us some shoe thoughts (!) and Taylor Graham responds to our Seed of the Week: Waiting—which doesn't have to be about Christmas, particularly. It seems like we spend a whole lot of our time waiting: for babies to arrive, for checks in the mail, for test results. Wrap your mind around the idea of waiting, see what comes up... No deadline on this or any other SOW.
___________________
SHOES
(for Muntader al-Zaidi)
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
Shoes
each one
good to wear
protecting feet
but expressing too
our unease at the dust
that dusts or cakes roadworn soles
and even contempt and rage at:
evildoers who turn people to
death-mud (what trace here of stars we’ve grown from)
___________________
WAITING OUT THE LONELY SEASON
—Taylor Graham, Placerville
Outside, neighbor kids with hockey sticks
are racing last daylight across the ice.
She pulls her curtains, turns up the music.
No matter how sweet the part-song—
all those voices weaving communal strains—
the air feels electric, dry as if beaten
with feathered wings, a crested harmony
rising to its ascendant, reaching, then
falling without finding. What message—
from angel, sea-nymph, fairy—might it
deliver, to make this not-quite Christmas
evening seem less cold?
__________________
SUMMER NIGHTS
—Holly Day
I live falling asleep to stories of
drive-by shootings and missing children
teenage prostitution rings and
the beginning rumbles of war. I live my days
in the knowledge that there is an end
to my days. I'm so afraid
of what my beautiful little boy must think
of this world, what he must be thinking
behind those wide blue eyes
and I hate all the things in the world
that make me lie to those eyes
when he asked me, Saturday morning, why
his cartoons are being interrupted by all this
talk of war.
__________________
SUMMERTIME
—Holly Day
at night
the sky stands still
and lets
clouds creep across it, slowly
as if afraid to fall
at night
the sky stands still
and lets
stars poke their way
through its skin
tiny spots of suspended
white light
and clouds crawl along
just underneath, tentative
birds streak overhead
from one end of the horizon
to the other
and disappear
only to be replaced by similar birds
that follow the same path
and repeat
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
—Russell Edson
Whan a man returned he saw that everything had been melted, puddled flat. His fedora looked like a large rare coin. The dead moth on the windowsill looked like a brown cloth draped from the windowsill. The lamp on the night table looked like a fried egg...
He went to ask his landlady about all this melting, but found that even she was melted; on the floor like a wall-to-wall picture of the moon; one breast the Sea of Tranquillity, one eye the Sea of Opticus...
He looked for the vulva, and not finding it, decided it must be on the dark side of the moon...
__________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's New from Rattlesnake Press:
Rattlesnake Review: The latest issue (#20) is currently available at The Book Collector, or send me two bux and I'll mail you one. Contributors' and subscribers' copies will go into the mail this week. Deadline for RR21 is February 15: send 3-5 poems, smallish art pieces and/or photos (no bio, no cover letter, no simultaneous submissions or previously-published poems) to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. E-mail attachments are preferred, but be sure to include all contact info, including snail address. Meanwhile, the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!
NEW for December: A second chapbook from Danyen Powell (Blue Sky Flies Out); a free littlesnake broadside from Kevin Jones (Low-Rent Dojo), and a brand-new (free) issue of Rattlesnake Review (#20)! Stop by The Book Collector and pick up Christmas gifts such as Katy Brown's calendars and blank journals and all our other books—give the gift of poetry! We even have two books that are appropriate for kids: Poems in a Seashell by Kathy Kieth (a children's approach to writing poetry), and SpiralChap #1: The Heart of a Poet, poetry and art by Ashley Redfield and her brother when they were wee ones. While you're there, of course, you'll want to pick up a book or two for your own Christmas tree. And hey—TBC is even open on Sundays!
Also available (free): littlesnake broadside #46: Snake Secrets: Getting Your Poetry Published in Rattlesnake Press (and lots of other places, besides!): A compendium of ideas for brushing up on your submissions process so as to make editors everywhere more happy, thereby increasing the likelihood of getting your poetry published. Pick up a copy at TBC or write to me and I'll send you one. Free!
Coming in January: Other than the ever-restless Medusa, the Snake will be snoozing during January; no releases or readings. But our October road trips inspired a new Rattlesnake publication, WTF, to be edited by frank andrick. This 30-page, chapbook-style (free) quarterly will primarily showcase the talents of readers at Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café, but anyone over 18 is welcome to submit. Deadline is Jan. 15 for a Feb. 19 premiere at Luna’s. Submission guidelines are the same as for the Snake, but please send three poems (each one page or less in length), photos, smallish art or prose pieces (500 words or less) to fandrickfabpub@hotmail.com (attachments preferred) or, if you’re snailing, to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. And be forewarned: this publication will be for adults only! so you must be over 18 years of age to submit.
Coming February 11: A new rattlechap from Sacramento's Poet Laureate, Julia Connor (Oar); a littlesnake broadside from Josh Fernandez (In The End, It’s A Worthless Machine); and the premiere of our new Rattlesnake Reprints, featuring The Dimensions of the Morning by D.R. Wagner, which was first published by Black Rabbit Press in 1969. That’s February 11 at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, 7:30 PM. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.
Medusa's Weekly Menu:
(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)
Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar
Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOWs; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.
Wednesday (sometimes): HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.
Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.
Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.
And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
_________________
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.
